Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Back to the blog.... I am taking it easy today, still recovering from a headcold/ sinus thing.... but I can still type.

The Job Search... well the good news is that I have a second interview for a job where I thought that I had blown the first interview. It would be a good job for me, in that it plays on all my strengths and it's located downtown. Sure like any other job there are things that aren't great, but over all I am excited about the prospect of having made it to the next step in the process. I haven't been looking for other postings all the much as of late, it's been a case of there haven't been all that many that I grabbed my attention. Of course there are plenty out there that I have applied for and not gotten a response on.

Back on the road, last time I was talking about wanting to see Houston Texas, and as the snows up north here start to melt I would thinking about heading west and to the north.... checking out some places in texas for sure, with Austin first on my list. There is plenty of stuff in Austin that I would love to check out.... I almost don't know where to start.. well with the music might be the best place. It's the wrong time of year for some of the bigger events I would like to see, South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival would both be worth checking out. And then there is the Alamo Drafthouse (http://www.drafthouse.com/) which seems like something that every good sized college town needs. I think that I could spend a couple of days in Austin and still not see everything that I wanted to.

Monday, February 11, 2008

My last post was about the job search.... right now I am still waiting on hearing back about some of the applications I have submitted, and getting ready for a Interview that I have this week...... more on that later....

but back on the road.. Houston.. It's a Texas city that I would like to see. The Johnson Space Center is there, and of course it's been the home of one of my favorite bands... or at least a band that I loved when I was an emotional mess of a young man.... King's X. It's a city with a cityscape skyline that I have wanted to see, and that I just want to check out..... Oh and they have a light rail that I want to ride... If I haven't mentioned I am a bit fan of mass transit, and any city that has a halfway ok system.... I would like to check it out. Other cities that I have to ride the mass transit include Portland, LA, Las Vegas and New York City.. so there it is.. Houston...

From there I think it's the time to wander through Texas, heading west, reading Larry McMurtry novels, listening to Buddy Holly and seeing the landscape.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

I don't know who out there is reading this, please leave me some comments if you are... but I am still here, and I am enduring one of the worst parts of any job hunt... the waiting. I have lost track of the number of jobs I have applied for in the last couple of months, but I can tell you how many I have gotten past the application stage with... zero... now I am not taking it personal, I know that in these times the applicants for positions outweigh the number of jobs, and I might not be the biggest Nancy Plosi fan (there is something about politicals people that rub me the wrong way) but she is right abut one things, we need Jobs, Jobs, jobs. Not just for me and my family, but all of my friends who are looking for work.... and let talk a little about working and the myths about work. First of all most people are more than willing to work... and by work I mean do the job, it's those who want more, who are greedy and can't just show up and do the job that make it awful for the rest of us... This is something that I have known for years, ever since I read Job Jumper by Thee Whiskey Rebel (which you can get at http://www.steelcagerecords.com/catalog/scb001.html). Not only did I know about it from reading this history of a working man, but I have seen it. Even the most enlightened workplaces seem to suffer from to many people who can't just do their jobs with out causinjg drama... so the waiting.. what can you do? really? right now I have some hours here and some hours there at my very part time jobs, but nothing solid, and that's why the waiting is so hard...

On the road is off the road for the moment, I need to have some time plan on where I would be headed next.... or simply recover from the Mardi Gras adventure. Right about now I think I would be looking to see gulf coast wandering towards Houston. Going to the beach and seeing the coast...

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Here it is sunday night... and it's the eve of a monday. I have the day off, I worked a couple of hours today, and I have some hours this week. I wish that it was as easy as having that stable 40 hours each week... the thing about a Monday is that it's the start of a new week, the start of new job searching week. I don't know what this week will hold. I have to look and see. My basic plan is to at least get that pre-employment screening done for working at the U of M Medical Center. The strange thing is that I have submitted several applications at several places, many of which I know that I am never going to hear back about, and many of which I have to think that it would be nice to have those jobs, and I would give them my all.... but if I can't get all emotionally involved with them, because so many of them are going to break my heart.

Information Addiction: the Links

I Like IKE

"we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

About Me

Quote City

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."- attributed to Hunter S. Thompson

“I never knew there was a class system in America until I moved to Ann ArborMichigan. This town was populated – dominated might be a better word- by rich, spoiled college students. I can see how Liverpool gave us the Beatles, but I’ll never understand how Ann Arbor gave us Iggy and the Stooges.”-Dee Dee Ramone, Lobotomy: surviving the Ramones. P. 255

You know, every day I get out of bed and drag myself to the next cup of coffee. I take a sip and the caffeine kicks in, I can focus my eyes again, my brain starts to order the day. I'm up, I'm alive. I'm ready to rock. The time is coming when I wake up and decide I'm not getting out of bed. I'm not getting up for coffee or food or sex. If it comes to me, fine; if it won't, fine. No more expectations. The longer I live the less I know. I should know more. I should know that coffee's killing me. You're suspicious of your suspicions? I'm jealous, Kay. I'm so jealous. You still have the heart to have doubts? Me, I'm going to lock up a fourteen-year-old kid for what could be the rest of his natural life. I gotta do this; this is my job. This is the deal, this is the law, this is my day. I have no doubts or suspicions anymore. Heart has nothing to do with it anymore. Its all in the caffeine.